Securing element for buttons and analogous fasteners, and method of using the same

ABSTRACT

A plate-shaped member has a major surface which in use is to face an object to which a fastener is to be secured. An elongated filament portion is of one piece with and extends from the member and is adapted to penetrate the object and to secure a fastener thereto. A free section of the filament portion passes through an aperture of the fastener and back through the object and is first inserted into one passage formed in the plate-shaped member in substantial parallelism with the general plane of the latter, formed with a knot which is drawn into a recess adjacent that open end of the passage at which the free section emerges from the passage, and thereupon the remainder of the free section is passed in opposite direction through a second passage extending more or less parallel to the first passage.

United States Patent [1 1 Nysten [451 July 15,1975

[75] Inventor: Bernhard Nysten, Aachen, Germany [73] Assignee: WilliamPrym-Werke KG, Stolberg,

Germany [22] Filed: Jan. 18, 1974 [21] Appl. No.: 434,578

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Jan. 26, 1973 Germany 2303730[52] US. Cl 24/90 W [51] Int. Cl. A4413 l/18 [58] Field of Search 24/90W, 90 TS, 90 TA,

24/90 TB, 150 PP, 103, 16 PB, 30.5 P

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 356,315 7/1922 Germany 24/90 W 1,003,4822/1957 Germany 22,229 9/1912 United Kingdom 24/90 TS PrimaryExaminer-Donald A. Griffin Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Michael S. Striker[57] ABSTRACT A plate-shaped member has a major surface which in use isto face an object to which a fastener is to be secured. An elongatedfilament portion is of one piece with and extends from the member and isadapted to penetrate the object and to secure a fastener thereto. A freesection of the filament portion passes through an aperture of thefastener and back through the object and is first inserted into onepassage formed in the plate-shaped member in substantial parallelismwith the general plane of the latter, formed with a knot which is drawninto a recess adjacent that open end of the passage at which the freesection emerges from the passage, and thereupon the remainder of thefree section is passed in opposite direction through a second passageextending more or less parallel to the first pas- 11 Claims, 4 DrawingFigures [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,979,508 11/1934Van Den Bel 24/30.5 P 2,025,663 12/1935 luliano t 24/90 TA 3,444,5975/1969 Bone 24/150 FP Modrey W age 3.780.400 12/1973 Hinspergerw .724/90 W X 3.785.009 l/l974 Nysten 24/90 W X SECURING ELEMENT FOR BUTTONSAND ANALOGOUS FASTENERS, AND METHOD OF USING THE SAME BACKGROUND OF THEINVENTION The present invention relates to the securing of buttons andanalogous fasteners, and more particularly to a novel securing elementfor carrying out such securement. The invention also relates to a methodof using the novel securing element.

Buttons, parts of snap fasteners and similar fastening devices orarrangements are fastened to garments, handbags or the like in a varietyof ways. Conventionally, this fastening is done by sewing, but also itis known to use different securing elements. For instance, it is knownto secure buttons to garments, using a plateshaped member provided withan integral filament which extends from its center and which is formedwith an eyelet. The filament is pushed with its free end through thegarment from one side to the other thereof, passed through one or moreopenings in the button, pushed back through the garment and theninserted through the eyelet which is itself formed in the filament asmentioned above. However, it has been found that this type of securingelement is not satisfactory for various resons. One of these is the factthat the connection thus established is rather loose because of thelocation of the eyelet in the filament itself. Another difficultyresides, of course, in the obvious danger that the free end of thefilament might slip back out of its eyelet and that the connection mightthus become loosened and the button be lost.

Another prior-art proposal utilizes a plate member to which one end of afilament is secured and which is formed with an opening into which theother end of the filament is introduced, after the filament has beenpassed through the garment and through one or more apertures of thebutton or the like. This other end is then secured in the opening bymeans of an adhesive which hardens. The evident disadvantage of thisproposal is the fact that it is necessary to use adhesive separately,that is to apply it in a separate operation, and to wait until it hashardened before the connection becomes reliable.

Still another prior-art proposal uses a member from which a filamentportion extends having a wavy end. The member itself is provided with achannel or passage having constrictions therein and into which the wavyend is to be inserted, with the object of having it be clampinglyretained. It has, however, been found that the retention was notreliable, an experience which was also made with another type ofprior-art fastener wherein the channel was replaced with an annularundercut groove formed in one major surface of a plate member, andwherein the filament was somewhat springy so that, after the filamentwas passed through the garment and the button or the like, a free endportion of the filament was inserted into the undercut groove and coiledtherein, the intention being that the springiness of the filament wouldurge it outwardly against the radially outer wall of the groove andcause it to be retained therein. Here, also, the retention was notsufficient and difficulties were experienced.

Still another prior-art proposal used a member provided with twofilament guides which were located at different levels and crossed oneanother, so that one portion of the filament which was inserted into oneof the guides would cross another portion inserted into the other guideand would frictionally retain it. The difficulty with this proposal wasthat it was complicated to use.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is a general object of thepresent invention to provide a securing element of the type in questionwhich avoids the disadvantages of the prior art.

More particularly, it is an object of the invention to provide such asecuring element which is simple in its construction and extremely easyto use.

An additional object of the invention is to provide such securingelement which affords a high degree of reliability in retaining a buttonor similar fastener.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a method of usingsuch a securing element.

In keeping with these objects, and with others which will becomeapparent hereafter, one feature of the invention resides in a securingelement for buttons or analogous fasteners which, briefly stated,comprises a plate-shaped member having a major surface which in use isto face an object to which a fastener is to be secured. An elongatedfilament portion extends from this member and is adapted to penetratethe object and secure a fastener thereto. The filament portion has afree section remote from the member and which is passed back through theobject after having been extended through one or more openings of thefastener. A pair of passages is formed in the member in substantialparallelism with the plane of the aforementioned major surface thereof.The first and second parts of the free section of the filament portionare inserted into these passages, that is one part is inserted into oneof the passages until the other part extends past a downstream open endof the one passage, and thereupon this other part is inserted inopposite direction through the other passage.

Before the other part is inserted through the other passage, a looseknot may be formed in the free section intermediate the downstream endof the first passage and the upstream end of the second passage intowhich the other part is about to be inserted. However, cooperatingretaining portions can be provided on the free section of the filamentportion and on the plate-shaped member, respectively, to obviate the useof such a knot.

According to a currently preferred embodiment, the plate-shaped memberis formed in its circumferential edge face with at least one recesswhich connects the adjacent open ends of two passages, and it isadvantageous if such recesses are provided, each connecting the twoadjacent open ends of the passages. The knot can then be inserted intoone of these recesses and will become drawn tightly into the same and beretained frictionally therein, as the other part of the free section isinserted into the second passage.

The securing element according to the present invention can be utilizedfor securing buttons, parts of snap fasteners and the like to garments,items of textile material, handbags and in fact anything that can bepenetrated by the filament portion. Evidently, the plateshaped memberwill be located at one side of the object to which the fastener is to besecured, as the fastener will be located at the opposite side. Thefilament portion is pushed with its free end through the object from theone side to the other side, then passed through one or more openings inthe fastener, pushed back through the object and thereupon insertedthrough the passages of the plate-shaped member in the manner describedabove. Of course, the filament portion can be repeatedly pushed throughthe object from one to the other side thereof, for instance if it mustbe made to pass through several openings in the button or analogousfastener.

If desired the securing element according to the present invention canitself be used as a fastener, in which case the filament portion willmerely be pushed through the object to which the securing element is tobe connected, and then back through the object whereupon it will beinserted into the passages of the plateshaped member in the manneroutlined above. In this case the securing element would, of course, haveto be configurated so that its plate-shaped member would serve as abutton or as a snap-fastener section.

The filament portion itself is composed of essentially two sections,namely a first section which is connected to or integral with theplate-shaped member and which is flexible so that it can be readilymoved, and a second section carries the tip of the filament portion andwhich is considerably less flexible so that the tip can be readilypushed through an object such as an item of textile material or thelike. It is advantageous if the plateshaped member and the filamentportion are of one piece and are made by injection-molding fromsynthetic plastic material, for instance nylon or the like. In order toimprove the strength of the filament portion it is advantageous if thelatter, assuming that it is made of synthetic plastic material, isstretched in its longitudinal direction to impart molecular orientationto it and thereby make it stronger. This concept is already known per sein the art.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic for theinvention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. Theinvention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method ofoperation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, willbe best understood from the following description of specificembodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a side view illustrating asecuring element according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a partly sectioned top-plan view of the securing element ofFIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side view of FIG. 1, as seen in the direction of the. arrow3; and

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 1, but illustrating a furtherembodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Discussing the drawing now indetail, and referring firstly to the embodiment illustrated in FIGS.1-3, it will be seen that reference numeral 2 identifies a plateshapedmember, from a major surface of which there extends an elongatedfilament portion 1. It is advantageous that the member 2 and the portion1 be of one piece and be injection molded from synthetic plasticmaterial, After the injection molding, the filament portion 1 isstretched until it reaches approximately three times its originallength, and this results in molecular orientation of the syntheticplastic material and in an increase in the strength of the filamentportion in a manner which is already known per se. The shape of thejunction 3 where the filament portion 1 joins the plate-shaped member 2,and of the terminal section 4 of the filament portion remains unchangedduring this stretching operation. The particular shape and increasedthickness of the junction 3 assures that the filament portion cannot bebroken off in this area, and the greater thickness of the section 4assures that the filament portion can be more readily pushed through anobject to which the element is to be secured. The tip 5 of the filamentportion 1 can be made pointed by, for instance, cutting it at an angleas shown in FIG. 1, to thereby facilitate the penetration of thefilament portion through the garment or similar object. If the tip 5 iscut at an angle as shown in FIG. 1, this is advantageously done bycutting at an angle through the connected filament portions of two ofthe elements which have been jointly injection molded, thereby not onlysevering them but also providing each filament portion with an angledtip 5.

As FIGS. 2 and 3 show most clearly, the member 2 is formed with twopassages 6 and 7 which extend in parallelism with its general plane andwith the plane of the major surface from which the filament portion 1extends. Preferably, but not necessarily, the passages 6 and 7 will bein axial parallelism as seen in FIG. 2. Their diameter is very slightlylarger than the largest diameter of the filament portion 1. It isadvantageous if the adjacent ends of the passages 6 and 7 are connectedat least at one side of the member 2 by a recess 8 formed in thecircumferential edge face of the member 2 (see particularly FIG. 3),although a similar recess can also be provided at the other sideconnecting the other two ends of the passages 6 and 7.

In use of the novel element the latter will be located at one side of agarment or similar object to which it is to be secured. Usually, thiswill be the reverse or concealed side. The tip 5 of the filament portion1 is now pushed through the object to the front side and is there passedeither through a hole formed in the shank of a button or other fastener,or through one or more holes formed directly in the body of thefastener. Thereupon, the tip 5 is used again to push through the objectso that the filament portion is then brought back to the reverse sidethereof, namely the side where the member 2 is lo cated. Now, thefilament is inserted first into one of the passages 6, 7, for examplethe passage 7. If only one of the recesses 8 is provided, then thefilament must be inserted into that open end of the passage 6 (or 7)which is remote from the recess 8. It then emerges from the oppositeopen end of the passage, where the recess is located, and a loose knotis now formed in it. Thereupon, the leading end of the filament portionis inserted into the open end of the other passage, in the example beingdiscussed the passage 7, and is pushed through the latter in directionopposite to its original movement through the passage 6. The free end ofthe filament portion will then emerge from the opposite end of thepassage 7 and when a pull is exerted upon it the knot will be drawn intothe recess 8, being bothtightened and becoming clamped in the recess.Any excess part of the filament which projects beyond the right-handopen end of the passage 7 in FIG. 2, can. be cut off.

If two of the recesses 8 are provided, that is the one shown in FIG. 2and another one (not shown) connecting the right-hand open ends of thepassages 6 and 7, then it is immaterial at which end the filamentportion is first inserted into the first one of the passages, because itwill evidently be one or the other of the recesses 8b available fordrawing of the knot thereinto.

Coming, finally, to the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 it will be seen thatthis uses analogous reference numerals to the one in FIGS. 1-3, exceptthat a prime symbol has been added. The plate member is identified withreference numeral 2' and the filament portion with reference numeral 1The plate member 2' is formed with two passages 6' and 7, as before, andthey are connected at their open ends by at least one recess 8.

Contrary to the embodiment of FIGS. l-3, however, the recess 8' isformed with snap-action portions 9 into which complementary snap-actionportions 9 of the filament 1' can be received with a snap action. Theportions 9 are formed of one piece with the filament 1.

In this embodiment, the formation of a knot is eliminated, because afterthe filament has been passed through the passage 6' (or 7') and isthereupon inserted into the passage 7' (or 6') some of the snapactionportions 9 will be drawn into the recess 8' wherein they will beretained by a snap action.

It is clear, therefore, that I have disclosed not only a novel securingelement which, incidentally, can itself be configurated as a button, asnap-fastener section or the like, but also a novel method of using suchan element. Moreover, it is evident that my novel construction overcomesthe disadvantages which I have outlined earlier with respect to theprior art.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or twoor more together, may also find a useful application in other types ofconstructions differing from the types described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in asecuring element for buttons and analogous fasteners, it is not intendedto be limited to the details shown, since various modifications andstructural changes may be made without departing in any way from thespirit of the present invention.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist ofthe present invention that others can, by applying current knowledge,readily adapt it for various applications without omitting featuresthat, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essentialcharacteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this inventionand, therefore, such adaptations should and are intended to becomprehended within the meaning and range of equivalence of thefollowing claims.

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent isset forth in the appended claims:

1. A method of securing a fastener to a garment or the like, comprisingthe steps of passing a filament portion of a securing element throughthe garment from one side to the other thereof, so that a plate-shapedmember of the element is located at said one side; passing the filamentportion at said other side through aperture means in a fastener locatedat said other side, and thereupon through said garment back to said oneside; passing one part of said filament portion through'a passage whichis formed in said member in parallelism with the general plane of thelatter; forming a knot in another part of said filament portion outsidea downstream open end of said passage; and passing a further part ofsaid filament portion which is located downstream of said knot, throughan additional passage in said member in a direction opposite to said onepart.

2. A securing element for buttons and analogous fas teners, comprising aplate-shaped member having a major surface which in use is to face anobject to which a fastener is to be secured; an elongated filamentportion extending from said member adapted to penetrate said object andsecure a fastener thereto, said filament portion having a free sectionremote from said member; said member having a pair of passages eachhaving respective two spaced open ends formed in said mebersubstantially parallel to the plane of said major surface, said passagesbeing adapted to accommodate respective first and second parts of saidfree section when such parts are successively inserted into saidpassages; a recess in said member which connects at least one pair ofsaid open ends; and cooperating engaging portions in said recess and onsaid filament portion.

3. A securing element according to claim 2, wherein said engagingportions are snap-action engaging portions.

4. A securing element for buttons and analogous fasteners, comprising aplate-shaped member having a major surface which in use is to face anobject to which a fastener is to be secured; an elongated filamentportion extending from said member adapted to penetrate said object andsecure a fastener thereto, said filament portion having said memberhaving a free section remote from said member; said member having a pairof passages each having respective two spaced open ends formed in saidmember substantially parallel to the plane of said major surface, saidpassages being adapted to accommodate respective first and second partsof said free section when such parts are successively inserted into saidpassages; and at least one recess in said member which connects one pairof said open ends, said recess being adapted to accommodate an enlargedportion formed in said free section intermediate said first and secondparts.

5. A securing element as defined in claim 4, wherein said filamentportion is of one piece with said member.

6. A securing element as defined in claim 4, wherein said passages areaxially parallel to one another.

7. A securing element as defined in claim 4, wherein said member andfilament portion are of synthetic plastic material.

8. A securing element as defined in claim 4, wherein said filamentportion is molecularly oriented by stretching.

9. A securing element as defined in claim 4, said free section having aneedle-shaped free tip.

10. A securing element as defined in claim 4, wherein said member isdisk-shaped.

11. A securing element according to claim 4, wherein said enlargedportion is a knot.

1. A method of securing a fastener to a garment or the like, comprising the steps of passing a filament portion of a securing element through the garment from one side to the other thereof, so that a plate-shaped member of the element is located at said one side; passing the filament portion at said other side through aperture means in a fastener located at said other side, and thereupon through said garment back to said one side; passing one part of said filament portion through a passage which is formed in said member in parallelism with the general plane of the latter; forming a knot in another part of said filament portion outside a downstream open end of said passage; and passing a further part of said filament portion which is located downstream of said knot, through an additional passage in said member in a direction opposite to said one part.
 2. A securing element for buttons and analogous fasteners, comprising a plate-shaped member having a major surface which in use is to face an object to which a fastener is to be secured; an elongated filament portion extending from said member adapted to penetrate said object and secure a fastener thereto, said filament portion having a free section remote from said member; said member having a pair of passages each having respective two spaced open ends formed in said meber substantially parallel to the plane of said major surface, said passages being adapted to accommodate respective first and second parts of said free section when such parts are successively inserted into said passages; a recess in said member which connects at least one pair of said open ends; and cooperating engaging portions in said recess and on said filament portion.
 3. A securing element according to claim 2, wherein said engaging portions are snap-action engaging portions.
 4. A securing element for buttons and analogous fasteners, comprising a plate-shaped member having a major surface which in use is to face an object to which a fastener is to be secured; an elongated filamenT portion extending from said member adapted to penetrate said object and secure a fastener thereto, said filament portion having a free section remote from said member; said member having a pair of passages each having respective two spaced open ends formed in said member substantially parallel to the plane of said major surface, said passages being adapted to accommodate respective first and second parts of said free section when such parts are successively inserted into said passages; and at least one recess in said member which connects one pair of said open ends, said recess being adapted to accommodate an enlarged portion formed in said free section intermediate said first and second parts.
 5. A securing element as defined in claim 4, wherein said filament portion is of one piece with said member.
 6. A securing element as defined in claim 4, wherein said passages are axially parallel to one another.
 7. A securing element as defined in claim 4, wherein said member and filament portion are of synthetic plastic material.
 8. A securing element as defined in claim 4, wherein said filament portion is molecularly oriented by stretching.
 9. A securing element as defined in claim 4, said free section having a needle-shaped free tip.
 10. A securing element as defined in claim 4, wherein said member is disk-shaped.
 11. A securing element according to claim 4, wherein said enlarged portion is a knot. 